The 11 most expensive countries for a university education

A group of graduates throw their caps in the air for a photograph after a graduation ceremony at Oxford University, Oxford, England, May 28, 2011.
REUTERS/Paul Hackett
It's that time of year when we're full of festive cheer but have empty wallets.

For those at university, the thought of heading back to student poverty is a little daunting over Christmas, especially in Britain and the US, where tuition fees eat into parents' budgets.

Britain and the US are known for high university tuition fees, but they actually don't top the list of places where parents spend most of their income on higher education for their children, or indeed what students have to pay for themselves.

The online B2B supplier site Expert Market analysed tuition-fee data from the Quacquarelli Symonds Top Universities for the academic year 2014-2015 and the Gallup Median Self-Reported Income report data in 2013.

It found that the UK and the US were actually somewhere in the middle of the top 11.

The list, which is based on on total tuition fees for a standard bachelor's degree which takes three to four years to complete, compared with a percentage of household incomes around the world, shows that some parents are willing to spend over 90% of their income on a standard bachelor's degree at public institutions for their kids.

Each country has various different rules around exemptions, scholarships, tuition fee bands, tax exemptions, various schemes on how to pay back but the figures are an average of the tuition fees that were paid.

***Business Insider updated this article to return to just the two pieces of data that Expert Market used to make the article clearer for readers.

11. Japan

Reuters

Total tuition fee cost: $24,000 (£15,821)

% of salary spent on tuition fees: 18%

Japan has 500 colleges and universities across the country, which keeps tuition fees lower than in other countries. Higher education in Japan concentrates on science, maths, and engineering, however, meaning many humanities students go abroad to study.

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10. Singapore

US President George W. Bush in Singapore in 2006.
Reuters

Total tuition fee cost: $35,400 (£23,336)

% of salary spent on tuition fees: 36%

The island nation of Singapore has only five public universities, and fees for medical- and science-based subjects are naturally very high. Singapore, however, is the third-richest country in the world, and high income levels mean parents spend just over a third of their salaries on making sure their children get at least a bachelor's degree.

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9. Britain

Reuters

Total tuition fee cost: $40,290 (£26,560)

% of salary spent on tuition fees: 42%

Britain's university fees are so high that they account for nearly half the average household's earnings. The country is still only ninth on the list, however, because of the country's higher wages. Tuition fees in Britain can cost up to £9,000 ($13,654) a year depending on the subject and university.

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8. Lithuania

Reuters

Total tuition fee cost: $23,904 (£15,759)

% of salary spent on tuition fees: 48%

Back in 2009, students protested across the capital of Vilnius against educational reforms because the students thought they would increase the cost of going to university. It ended up being true, as students' parents hive off nearly half of their salaries to pay for higher education.

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7. Ukraine

Reuters

Total tuition fee cost: $23,200 (£15,292)

% of salary spent on tuition fees: 52%

At one point, Ukraine had more universities than Italy, France, Germany, Poland, and Belgium combined. But the country pared down its 900 universities to just under 200 over the past three years. A number of these have specialised military institutes within the university so graduates can immediately enter the army.

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6. The United States

Reuters

Total tuition fee cost: $91,832 (£60,510)

% of salary spent on tuition fees: 53%

The US is known for its eye-wateringly high tuition fees.

"What you see with the UK and the US is fairly generous wages when compared with other nations, but whopping fees which reach tens of thousands per year," Jared Keleher of Expert Market said in a statement. "To compound this, what seems to be happening now is that fees continue to rise each year but wages do not, so higher education is becoming something which only the elite can afford."

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5. Malaysia

Reuters

Total tuition fee cost: $18,000 (£11,863)

% of salary spent on tuition fees: 55%

The country has about 20 universities, and fees are low compared with those in other countries. Without scholarships or loans, parents on average will lose over half their wages in tuition fees.

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4. Chile

Reuters

Total tuition fee cost: $23,600 (£15,554)

% of salary spent on tuition fees: 73%

A massive wave of student protests from 2011 to 2013 — dubbed the "Chilean Winter" — tried to end the existence of for-profit higher-education institutions (not paid for by the state) as poorer families are unable to afford to send their kids to university.

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3. Estonia

Reuters

Total tuition fee cost: $38,400 (£25,310)

% of salary spent on tuition fees: 76%

The Estonian government made the development of science and technology a national priority as of 2011 after the proportion of students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or the STEM subjects, declined in the 1990s. While uptake has risen over the past few years, these degrees carry the highest cost burdens in fees.

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2. Romania

Reuters

Total tuition fee cost: $25,200 (£16,609)

% of salary spent on tuition fees: 86%

Romania has a huge concentration of students in the sciences, especially medicine, within its higher-education system. Higher education is generally free to Romanian nationals but the government does allocate a number of seats that have to be paid for. Also fees always apply to foreign students.

"Many of the most expensive places are in the top 10 because their wages are low so even a small amount of fees takes a lot from the average income," Jared Keleher of Expert Market said.

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1. Hungary

Hungarian students rally against the government's planned sharp cuts in state-financed places at universities in Budapest December 12, 2012.
Reuters

Total tuition fee cost: $34,200 (£22,358)

% of salary spent on tuition fees: 92%

Hungarian parents spend the equivalent of nearly a whole average salary on higher education each year, limiting participation to people with higher incomes, who have savings, or who are heavily dependent on loans. The government does allow students to gain a free university education, however — as long as they stay in the country for 10 years after they graduate or face paying back their tuition fees.